So I've decided to get working on my TL blog again, specifically my History of PC Gaming series. *shameless plug* To those of you who have PM'ed me, yes I am still working on it and no I don't know when the next part will be done. Let's just say "soonish".
Anyway, when writing about my favorite PC games or even when working on something boring, I love to listen to some of the really good soundtracks from the annals of PC gaming. It's kind of crazy, but listening to some of this music takes me right back to the hours upon hours I spent with some of these games. I flash right back to the amazing experience, the great times kicking butt in multilayer: right there like it was yesterday. Not to mention some of these games had GREAT music!
You can download (even legally) most of these soundtracks, but a lot of it has also been uploaded to You Tube by kind souls with more time than me. So, just for fun, here's a list of some of my favorite tracks from some of my favorite games. I'm not trying to rank anything or make any points, these are just my personal favorites.
Sorry if the thread is a little long, but I'm not going to spoiler all the videos, they're kind of the point of this blog. Share your favorites too: but keep it PC gaming and keep it retro (let's say pre-2003?) !! Anyway, here are some of my favorites:
C&C
The first Command and Conquer, retroactively known as "Tiberian Dawn", was the game that launched Westwood to superstar developer status. It also had some amazing music for 1995 that was a perfect backdrop to squishing guys with tanks. I still listen to some of these tracks occasionally, and they stand as some of my most favorite PC gaming music of all time.
Interesting fact; the track "mechanical man" was the subject of a parody, "medieval man" which was included on the WCII Beyond the Dark Portal disc. But the original is much better
"Mechanical Man"
"Industrial"
"C&C Thang" (listen for MJ. Okay, not really)
C&C Red Alert
If you don't know about Red Alert... well you should. Anyway, also had some good tracks, the title music "Hell March" is infamous for the random guy shouting stuff. PC Gamer reported in 2001 that even the devs had no idea what that guy is saying. PC Gamer's guess: "eat more pants". Seems close.
"Hell March" (feat. 'eat more pants' guy)
This song is just so indicative of everything Westwood was once upon a time. I love it, reminds me of a decade of some amazing RTSs.
Myst/Riven
If you've read my previous blogs, you've already heard me go on at great length about how great the music is in Myst. Well, it's pretty damn awesome and its successor Riven has equally great music. It's hard to pick just one track from each, both are such iconic games and part of that came from their music. Cyan knew what they were doing, they artfully created amazing environment though audio; I still regularly listen to these sound tracks.
Myst - "Fortress Ambience"
Riven - "gateroom"
Riven's darker, more sinister and exotic environment was perfectly executed through the game's music. I love this sound track.
Unreal Tournament
A lot of people have forgotten about this game, and how awesome it is. More importantly, how awesome it's music is.
"mech 8"
Listening to this track takes me right back to the hundred of matches I played on AS Highspeed. Good fucking map
Holy shit this takes me back. Soooo manyyyy hours played.... Also, whoever put this 2 hour video together is one of the most cool people ever. :D
StarCraft: Broodwar
I think most of us have heard the music in SC and BW (which is awesome btw). But those of you who never played BW probably have never heard the secret track revealed by the code "Radio Free Zerg". Short and sweet, it's the Overmind and chief cerebrate Daggoth rapping. And yes, it's fucking awesome. Also one of my favorite tracks of all time.
[center]"radio free zerg" Crank this shit and party like it's 1999 bitches!
Half Life
Half-Life really isn't known for it's music, but it did have some good tracks. Unfortunately, the devs made the awful choice of using red book audio on the original release but didn't make the CD mandatory to play the game: meaning lots of people probably played through the game never realizing that it had music. Well, it did. And some of it was pretty sweet.
"Credits Music"
track 22
Deus Ex
Up to this point, these have not been in any specific order. But the original Deus Ex has my favorite music of any PC game of all time, retro or otherwise. And I know I'm not alone in this. A friend of mine had the Wan Chai theme set as his ring tone for the longest time, lol. Goddamn this game is so good in every way....
"wan chai"
"unatco"
"versalife"
I'll stop there, I could easily post every track from Deus Ex...
So, there you have it, some of my favorite tracks from some of my favorite 'retro' games. I'd love it if you guys posted some of your favorites, just about every track from every popular game is on you tube. If no one posts anything from Doom, I will be disappointed
I still have the Deus Ex soundtrack that came with the GotY edition I bought back in the day. I noticed you posted synapse first, so maybe you'll enjoy this remix called Siren Synapse done in collaboration with the original composer. Siren is the nickname of Alexander Brandon, the original composer of the Deus Ex soundtrack, along with many other Epic Games including Unreal Tournament(love that soundtrack) and Unreal(which also has awesome music you should check out). http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01914/
Some of the most epic game music I heard, also 90's ^^ TRULY a must-listen, all the way through. Flying around shooting cannons at shit was too godlike with this music.
^ First part
My single favorite song if I absolutely had to choose would be this one:
The best part about this was that you could put the MW2 CD into your CD player and play it while reading books... For me, this sound track was KILLING IT to Ender's game when I was ~9-10.
(i remember playing the demo of Homeworld 1 for like 3 days straight again and again, one of most mind-blowing experiences in gaming ever, incomparable to anything that came later)
Maybe one of my all time favorite and from Westwood too :
Feels good to play the bad guys for once.
Another awesome strategy game :
Maybe not as old school as the previous ones, but Serious Sam had some nice ones too :
A lot of musics from New World Computing (Heroes of Might & Magic, especially 2, 3 & 4, Might & Magic 6). I'll try not to copy here as there are so much gold in these.
On October 16 2012 13:50 Fyrewolf wrote: I still have the Deus Ex soundtrack that came with the GotY edition I bought back in the day. I noticed you posted synapse first, so maybe you'll enjoy this remix called Siren Synapse done in collaboration with the original composer. Siren is the nickname of Alexander Brandon, the original composer of the Deus Ex soundtrack, along with many other Epic Games including Unreal Tournament(love that soundtrack) and Unreal(which also has awesome music you should check out).
Unreal definitely did have some good soundtracks, not as good as UT IMO. But it did a great job of painting that serene background... before you get your ass ripped off....
Also, I've heard some of the Deus Ex remixes. None are as good as the original sound track IMO
This track is so good! Just reminds me of the probably thousand hours I played this game. It's so good!!!
On October 16 2012 16:14 bgx wrote: Homeword: Adagio for Strings (i remember playing the demo of Homeworld 1 for like 3 days straight again and again, one of most mind-blowing experiences in gaming ever, incomparable to anything that came later)
I actually forgot all about Homeworld! I agree, it's a completely amazing game with some awesome visuals and music. The music from levels 7 and 8 (the nebula levels) is by far my favorite.
On October 16 2012 14:13 heyoka wrote: I remember following the development of all of these games. I hate you so much for putting them in a retro game blog.
It's strange to realize that most of these games are 15 years old or over. Definitely retro by gaming standards. The original C&C was 17 years ago, UT was 14 years ago. It doesn't seem that long, strangely enough.
I never really got on with Total Annihilation as a game (it always seemed much too complicated to me, personally), but I always had a soft spot for its music. As well as the tracks already mentioned, "Forest Green" is great. When I had a really dull job a few years back I used to whistle the Morrowind theme to myself quite a lot too, I remember...
You've also got to love a bit of Rayman, though.
Also, anyone play Oni? Still one of my top 10 favourite games ever, one of the best (only) beat 'em ups on the PC and with some excellent music.
On October 17 2012 00:11 Incze wrote: Some of my most favourite soundtracks ever come from starcraft 1 and the "legacy of kain" series
And now because of you I have to play the LoK series again. Not that I mind.
Ah hah, I thought about posting some Soul Reaver musics, but I prefered to wait until someone else did it. Thanks guy.
On October 17 2012 00:50 RookUK wrote: Also, anyone play Oni? Still one of my top 10 favourite games ever, one of the best (only) beat 'em ups on the PC and with some excellent music.
I did remember the game - really good, not top 10 potential for me but clearly top notch beat'em up on PC. But no any music from it, thanks for the share !
On October 16 2012 23:56 JingleHell wrote: Kind of needlessly overcomplicated game, but damn it had some awesome music and visuals.
Granted, not PC, but still...
I get to ban you from my blog now for not following the rules, right? Lol, jk!
On October 17 2012 00:11 Incze wrote: Some of my most favourite soundtracks ever come from starcraft 1 and the "legacy of kain" series http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2RMWWBXYbs
And now because of you I have to play the LoK series again. Not that I mind.
I was wondering why I'd never heard of this game series, I see that it's a port though. Seems to have a great sound track though. Eidos did manage to make some good cross platform games back in the day when virtually all ported games sucked. (Tomb Raider being one game with huge following on both platforms, for example) So I might have to check it out.
On October 17 2012 00:14 `phobiA wrote: Heroes of Might and Magic music I - III!
I keep hearing such great things about the HoMM series and still have yet to play any of the games. HoM 3 is on my ever increasingly long list of must-play games, I promise!
But since this blog is about gaming music, I did a search for some HoM 3 tracks:
Dawg how can you have UT and not have foregone destruction (facing worlds) and Deus Ex without the main theme? But other than that good stuff man, hhit pretty much all the games with amazing soundtracks. I would have added the entire mechwarrior 2 soundtrack as well. Seems like soundtracks of modern gaming are just shitty compared to games of yore..
On October 16 2012 13:50 Fyrewolf wrote: I still have the Deus Ex soundtrack that came with the GotY edition I bought back in the day. I noticed you posted synapse first, so maybe you'll enjoy this remix called Siren Synapse done in collaboration with the original composer. Siren is the nickname of Alexander Brandon, the original composer of the Deus Ex soundtrack, along with many other Epic Games including Unreal Tournament(love that soundtrack) and Unreal(which also has awesome music you should check out).
Unreal definitely did have some good soundtracks, not as good as UT IMO. But it did a great job of painting that serene background... before you get your ass ripped off....
Also, I've heard some of the Deus Ex remixes. None are as good as the original sound track IMO
Agree that most of them suck. The original composer of the track(Brandon) helped make that one though, so it's quite good. It is the only deus ex remix that's made it onto my collection though since most aren't good. I think I might prefer it to his game version, but that might be because when I get to that point in the cd I get impatient just want to skip to the next few songs that I really like(hong kong action, paris action, versalife, return to nyc).
Also HoMM 2 is awesome, I'd go back to play that before homm 3. Had some great music and gameplay.
On October 17 2012 00:50 RookUK wrote: I never really got on with Total Annihilation as a game (it always seemed much too complicated to me, personally), but I always had a soft spot for its music. As well as the tracks already mentioned, "Forest Green" is great. When I had a really dull job a few years back I used to whistle the Morrowind theme to myself quite a lot too, I remember...
EPT
